About QPI Sites


  • Joined QPI in 2009
  • Partnership with California Department of Social Services (CDSS) and County Welfare Directors Association (CWDA); 24 QPI counties
  • QPI commitment exemplified through county-level and statewide initiatives in practice areas including:
    • Comfort calls
    • QPI influenced resource family investigations 
    • Transitions from one home to another
    • Strengthened partnership between staff and families
    • Relationships between birth and resource parents
  • Four counties (San Diego, Riverside, San Luis Obispo, and San Francisco) piloted “Quality Parenting Outreach” (QPO) text message-based survey technology to engage resource parents
  • Hosted 3rd National QPI Conference in San Diego, 2015
  • California’s Just In Time Training: qpicalifornia.org

  • Joined QPI in 2020
  • Statewide Launch “QPI Kick Off”, November 2020
  • Site has a statewide implementation team, a Statewide Caregiver Advisory Council, and six local groups
  • Began QPI Champions training program, November 2020. First cohort graduated May 2021.
  • Learn more about QPI Connecticut’s history and current movement at www.qpict.org

  • Birthplace of QPI in 2008
  • Privatized system; QPI present in all regions and overseen by 12 Community Based Care (CBC) organizations
  • Several state partnerships, including:
    • FL Foster and Adoptive Parent Association;
    • FL Office of State Court Administration;
    • FL Dependency Court Improvement Panel;
    • FL DCF Office of Child Welfare;
    • Florida Youth Shine;
    • One Voice Impact
  • 2021 legislative work includes:
    • development of statewide uniform transition assessment tool to support developmentally appropriate transitions for children and youth;
    • development of a statewide uniform tool to prioritize sibling relationships and placements; and
    • developing caregiver training to equip youth with independent living skills 
  • Implementation of 2020 legislative changes included:
    • Respectful partnerships between staff and families
    • Birth/foster parent partnerships
    • Developmentally appropriate transitions
  • Active participants in the QPI Champions Program 2020-2022
  • Actively working to increase voices of lived experienced stakeholders in local and statewide work
  • Hosted 1st National QPI Conference in Tampa, 2012

Kansas

  • Joined QPI in 2021
  • Partnership with The Family Initiative (TFI) and Cornerstone of Care (COC)- two of the foster care recruitment agencies currently under contract with Kansas DCF.
  • Both agencies have agreed to work in partnership. Their 2022 goals are to:
    • Create a culture where a relationship between foster parents and birth parents are supported contingent upon appropriate training of foster parents on reunification;
    • Increase their interdisciplinary approach by ensuring more system participants support the decision-making process about child(ren) moving a different/new foster home; and
    • Address data privacy in what can be shared with foster parents, so that necessary information will be shared with foster parents to allow them to “co-parent”, role model, and mentor successfully.
  • Highlights:
    • First Kansas QPI Champion training cohort graduated January 2022 having completed six months of QPI training, agency coaching and discussion.
    • Strategic planning has begun by reaching out to other key stakeholders- i.e. courts, foster parents, etc.
    • Recruiters with each Kansas involved agency are working together to share a common message to potential foster parents that focuses on reunification, including the expectation that mentoring and role modeling of birth parents is expected.

  • Joined QPI in 2016
  • Statewide partnership with Department of Children and Family Services and includes nine regions.
  • Statewide Highlights & Current Priorities:
    • Planful Transitions
    • Early connections focus – Initial “Comfort” Calls & Icebreaker Meetings
    • QPI Practice Guides developed for use by staff, foster caregivers, birth parents, partners clarifying best practice in that area, and implementation strategies. Topics include:
      • Confidentiality and Information Sharing
      • Initial Calls
      • Icebreakers
      • Planful Transitions, and
      • Placement Guide for Care Setting Decision Making with Young Children
  • Birth and Foster Parent Mentors (region specific)

  • Joined QPI in 2017
  • Partnership with Aspire MN and specific private agencies
  • Highlights:
    • Initial (comfort) calls passed into legislation effective November 2020
    • Reunification day proclamation by Governor Walz June 25, 2020
    • QPI-MN Champions cohort; 12 individuals trained
    • Published “Starting Journey as a Relative / Kin Foster Parent” video series in conjunction with Mitchell Hamline Law School
  • Current Priorities
    • Developing a toolkit for recruitment and licensing agencies that includes the lived experience perspective from first contact point of a prospective foster family’s journey into fostering.
    • Youth creating presentations, trainings and educational materials for prospective families and currently licensed foster families.
    • Increasing leadership of BIPOC youth and parents to enhance practices and policies that address system disproportionately.
    • Expanding statewide network QPI-MN regional sites and members.
  • Piloted QPI Champions program in 2020
  • Learn more about QPI Minnesota’s history and current movement at qpimn.org

  • Joined QPI in 2011
  • Statewide partnership includes Clark County Department of Family Services, Clark County, Washoe County Human Services Agency Children’s Services Division, and Division of Child and Family Services – Rural Region 
  • Significant areas of focus and achievements:
    • Statewide policy on Normalcy 
    • Relative placement data indicates high priority and nationally competitive numbers
    • Siblings being placed together for Clark data high
    • Statewide policy on Information sharing
    • Court improvement Project and local judicial partners on QPI ideals and impact on practice
    • Peer support coaches both for resource families and placement stabilization (Foster Parent Champions in Clark)
    • Washoe was initial site to practice and formally study the ABC-V practice model now statewide FRV practice
    • Statewide integration of QPI philosophy
  • 2022 initiatives:
    • Statewide transition policy (pending)
    • Statewide caregiver support groups through foster kinship
  • Hosted 2nd National QPI Conference in Las Vegas, 2014
  • Washoe joined QPI Champions program in second cohort, October 2020
  • Nevada’s Just In Time Training: qpinevada.org

  • Joined QPI in 2021
  • Statewide Launch “QPI Kick Off”, June 2021
  • Graduated first cohort of QPI Champions, December 2021
  • Launched Quality Parenting Outreach “QPO”, December 2021
  • QPI presented at the largest child welfare and juvenile justice conference in the state, Children’s Law Institute, January 2022 
  • Statewide QPI Council launching March 2022

  • Joined QPI in 2014
  • Partnership with City of Philadelphia Department of Human Services (county agency) which includes 10 case management agencies, and 25 resource home licensing agencies
  • Joining the QPI Champions program in 2022 
  • Areas of focus:
    • Resource parent court participation
    • Information-sharing with resource parents
    • Icebreakers
    • Training
    • Implementation of “Comfort Calls”, initial phone calls between parents and caregivers
  • Hosted 6th National QPI Conference in Philadelphia, 2019
  • Philadelphia’s Just In Time Training: jitphiladelphia.org

  • Joined QPI in 2014
  • Began Texas partnership with Our Community Our Kids (OC-OK), a division of ACH Child and Family Services, First3Years. Currently partnered with Texas Family Initiative (TFI), formerly known as 2INgage.
  • Highlights & Current Priorities
    • OC-OK assumed case management from DFPS in March 2020 to serve the families of youth in care.
    • Expanding QPI to rural counties and expanding therapeutic services for youth.

 

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